Visa Inc (NYSE: V ) said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of the growing industry acceptance of digital currencies. conventional finance.

Visa has launched the pilot program with cryptocurrency and payment platform Crypto.com and plans to offer the option to more partners later this year, it said.

USD Coin (USDC) is a stable cryptocurrency whose value is directly pegged to the dollar.

Visa’s move comes at a time when major financial firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK ) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA ) Inc have adopted some digital currencies, prompting predictions that they will become a part typical of investment portfolios.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Inc boss Elon Musk said last week that customers can now buy their electric vehicles with bitcoin, marking a major step forward for the use of cryptocurrency in commerce.

“We see a growing demand from consumers around the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we are seeing demand from our customers to be able to build products that provide that access to consumers,” said Cuy Sheffield, head of cryptocurrency at Visa.

Traditionally, if a customer used a Crypto.com Visa card to pay for a coffee , the digital currency held in a cryptocurrency wallet must be converted into traditional money.

The cryptocurrency wallet will deposit traditional fiat currency into a bank account, which will be transferred to Visa at the end of the day to settle any transactions, adding cost and complexity to businesses. Visa’s decision, which will use the ethereum blockchain , removes the need to convert digital currencies into traditional money for the transaction to settle.